FEEL Engine Type Handling

This documentation covers supported types of variable values when used in a FEEL expression and supported output types.

In DMN, when defining a typeRef attribute on a Variable, Input or Output element, the DMN Engine tries to convert the result value of the corresponding Literal Expression, Input Expression or the Output Entry. When no typeRef attribute is specified, the DMN Engine passes the return value of the FEEL Engine directly without any conversion. Please see the documentation about Supported Data Types in DMN to learn more about the typeRef attribute.

The FEEL Engine might support more types than listed below. However, this page defines which of the types are known for being…

  • …well integrable in Camunda 7
  • …covered by automated tests

Supported Variable Value Types

The variable value types listed in this section can be handled by the FEEL Engine when passing.

Java Native Types

  • java.lang.String
  • java.lang.Float
  • java.lang.Double
  • java.lang.Integer
  • java.lang.Long
  • java.lang.Boolean
  • java.util.Date
  • java.util.Map
  • java.util.List

Spin Types

  • org.camunda.spin.json.SpinJsonNode
  • org.camunda.spin.xml.SpinXmlElement

For more information about the Camunda Spin integration, please see the documentation about FEEL Engine Spin Integration.

Return Types

The table displays:

  • Which return value of a FEEL Expression maps to which Java type
  • Which Camunda 7 specific variable type is assigned for the respective Java type
FEEL Expression Example FEEL Engine Return Type Camunda Variable Type
null null null
"foo" java.lang.String string
3.1415 java.lang.Double double
3 java.lang.Long long
true java.lang.Boolean boolean
time("11:45:30") java.time.LocalTime object
time("11:45:30+02:00")
time("10:31:10@Europe/Paris")
org.camunda.feel.syntaxtree.ZonedTime object
date("2017-03-10") java.time.LocalDate object
date and time("2019-08-12T22:22:22") java.time.LocalDateTime object
date and time("2019-08-12T22:22:22+02:00")
date and time("2019-08-12T22:22:22@Europe/Berlin")
java.time.ZonedDateTime object
duration("P4D") java.time.Duration object
duration("P1Y6M") java.time.Period object
{ "foo": "bar" } java.util.Map * object
[ "foo", "bar", "baz" ] java.util.List * object

* Since the FEEL Engine is based on the Scala Library, a Scala-specific implementation type for Map and List is used

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